Aneshka's useless rants
A glimpse inside ...
Sunday, April 15, 2007
(Photos at http://aneshka.multiply.com/photos/album/16, I was supposed to post photos here but I can't extract the photos from multiply, viewed the source code and the link of the photos are per session, anybody out there knows how to hack it?)
This is 3 weeks delayed. Last holy week, Yiek and I went to Washington D.C. for their so-called Cherry Blossoms Festival. It was a spur-of-a-moment decision, I wasn't planning on taking a vacation leave but then I was the only one who have Friday as a working day (Holidays are rare in my company as we follow banking days) so I took a day off to have a long weekend. We were suppose to go with Yiek's officemates on some tour package but we were too late in booking so we opted to just go there by ourselves. We figured that we'd prefer going on our own than some rush iterinary.
I asked for some tips from Brenditz on how to blind bid for a hotel at priceline and I won the bid for $78 (inc. tax) not bad for a 3 star hotel that is in Washington and its their peakest season at that! I'm one very satisfied customer (more on that later) and I would definitely book all my hotels from their website from now on.
We woke up at an ungodly hour, 5:30-6:00 am, oh I know its not that early but we are used to waking up at 8:00 am, even on working days. All trace of sleepiness were washed away due to our excitement. It's going to be our first ever road trip and with no definite iterinary at that! All I had were some listing of the tourist spots and our trusty GPS navigator. We bought breakfast meals from dunkin donuts and we were on our way.
I was amazed that there were service stations to stop when your thirsty, hungry or feel the need to wiwi. Their service stations were so unlike the ones back home, carenderia-like style, serving hotdog and lucky me instant noodles, theirs was like a mini food court with shops such as starbucks, cinnabon, sbarro shops and of course a gas station. Do you how much money we wasted paying toll fees? We paid $15 bucks! We paid $3 just to pass some freakin' bridge. Tsk! Finally we arrived at 10:30 am and my gulay, traffic. The roads are soo confusing and their drivers were at par with the drivers back home. Street names are confusing i.e. they have 1st Street NE and another 1st NW, it would have been better if the numbering were in order but its 1st street, bayani street, 2nd street, and there are so many roundabouts that even with the GPS we got lost.Yiek was grumbling all the time. It took us an hour to find a decent parking space. We resorted to paid parking because there's just no vacant street parking and I was desperate I need to spill out my fluids. I hesitantly paid $18 for valet parking, there's just no other way.
It was a cold day and I forgot to bring my coat. I was shivering the whole day! Tsk! Tsk! Washington is all about walking, walking and walking. Never did I walk that much in my entire life! Ok, I'm exaggerating but I must have walked 10 miles!
Washington is all about picturesque infrastructures and museums, the city is clean too! We hopped from one place to another, looking for a place to eat, I thought that there were going to be restos outside the musuem, boy Was I wrong, it took us 2 hours to find a any restaurant but since we were at the NAtional mall there's just no restos, so we decided to go back to the Musuem of Natural History to eat with the dinasaours. Food is expensive in Washington, heck everything is expensive in Washington. Gas is 20 cents/gallon higher, and my jaw almost drop when I paid our food bill, $5 for one slice of pizza, $4 for a small mac & cheese and $8 for chicken strips.
We met Bio and Ernie on the Lincoln Memorial park. Being movie buffs, I immediately related the Lincoln statue to "Planet of Apes" while Yiek related the Reflecting Pool to Forrest Gump.We then proceeded to the much-talked cherry blossoms, which was a big dissapointment,there were not that many blossoms because of the sudden cold front. Tsk! Bad timing. I saw one at some botanical park here, in full bloom and its beautiful, will come back there tomorrow to take pictures of the lonesome tree.
WE then went to the popular WHITE House. Bahay lang pala eh. para lang mansion mas nakakita pa ako na mas malaki na bahay dito, dami nga lang security cameras.
My feet were hurting by this time and we were again hungry from all the walking, so we ate at some Vietnamese resto, ordered grilled pork belly and some soup. sarap! parang liempo sa pinas, mahal nga lang, we spent $20 each for the said meal.
When we checked in at our hotel, we were told that we were overbooked and they would transfer us at their sister hotel. Fine! So we got directions and circled the roudabout uhmm 5 times, because we couldn't locate the hotel. Kaya pala, under renovation, di obvious ang name nya ano ba. Good thing, libre na ang parking pag gabi and weekend kundi magra-rally ako! The hotel was nice and very spacious. Didn't like the bed that much though, it was too firm but nonetheless we were satisfied with what we got, a fully equipped kitchen, tv and spacious bathroom.
..next Travelogues: Washington D.C. Day 2
P.S.
You know why I'm so happy with the hotel we booked? They returned our money and we almost got the hotel free. Almost because I lost the confirmation/charge page and their tax charge was lower than what priceline charged us. We got a 3-star hotel for $8, woohoo! We joked that we'll definitely check-in late again so we'll be charge for free. harhar!
This is 3 weeks delayed. Last holy week, Yiek and I went to Washington D.C. for their so-called Cherry Blossoms Festival. It was a spur-of-a-moment decision, I wasn't planning on taking a vacation leave but then I was the only one who have Friday as a working day (Holidays are rare in my company as we follow banking days) so I took a day off to have a long weekend. We were suppose to go with Yiek's officemates on some tour package but we were too late in booking so we opted to just go there by ourselves. We figured that we'd prefer going on our own than some rush iterinary.
I asked for some tips from Brenditz on how to blind bid for a hotel at priceline and I won the bid for $78 (inc. tax) not bad for a 3 star hotel that is in Washington and its their peakest season at that! I'm one very satisfied customer (more on that later) and I would definitely book all my hotels from their website from now on.
We woke up at an ungodly hour, 5:30-6:00 am, oh I know its not that early but we are used to waking up at 8:00 am, even on working days. All trace of sleepiness were washed away due to our excitement. It's going to be our first ever road trip and with no definite iterinary at that! All I had were some listing of the tourist spots and our trusty GPS navigator. We bought breakfast meals from dunkin donuts and we were on our way.
I was amazed that there were service stations to stop when your thirsty, hungry or feel the need to wiwi. Their service stations were so unlike the ones back home, carenderia-like style, serving hotdog and lucky me instant noodles, theirs was like a mini food court with shops such as starbucks, cinnabon, sbarro shops and of course a gas station. Do you how much money we wasted paying toll fees? We paid $15 bucks! We paid $3 just to pass some freakin' bridge. Tsk! Finally we arrived at 10:30 am and my gulay, traffic. The roads are soo confusing and their drivers were at par with the drivers back home. Street names are confusing i.e. they have 1st Street NE and another 1st NW, it would have been better if the numbering were in order but its 1st street, bayani street, 2nd street, and there are so many roundabouts that even with the GPS we got lost.Yiek was grumbling all the time. It took us an hour to find a decent parking space. We resorted to paid parking because there's just no vacant street parking and I was desperate I need to spill out my fluids. I hesitantly paid $18 for valet parking, there's just no other way.
It was a cold day and I forgot to bring my coat. I was shivering the whole day! Tsk! Tsk! Washington is all about walking, walking and walking. Never did I walk that much in my entire life! Ok, I'm exaggerating but I must have walked 10 miles!
Washington is all about picturesque infrastructures and museums, the city is clean too! We hopped from one place to another, looking for a place to eat, I thought that there were going to be restos outside the musuem, boy Was I wrong, it took us 2 hours to find a any restaurant but since we were at the NAtional mall there's just no restos, so we decided to go back to the Musuem of Natural History to eat with the dinasaours. Food is expensive in Washington, heck everything is expensive in Washington. Gas is 20 cents/gallon higher, and my jaw almost drop when I paid our food bill, $5 for one slice of pizza, $4 for a small mac & cheese and $8 for chicken strips.
We met Bio and Ernie on the Lincoln Memorial park. Being movie buffs, I immediately related the Lincoln statue to "Planet of Apes" while Yiek related the Reflecting Pool to Forrest Gump.We then proceeded to the much-talked cherry blossoms, which was a big dissapointment,there were not that many blossoms because of the sudden cold front. Tsk! Bad timing. I saw one at some botanical park here, in full bloom and its beautiful, will come back there tomorrow to take pictures of the lonesome tree.
WE then went to the popular WHITE House. Bahay lang pala eh. para lang mansion mas nakakita pa ako na mas malaki na bahay dito, dami nga lang security cameras.
My feet were hurting by this time and we were again hungry from all the walking, so we ate at some Vietnamese resto, ordered grilled pork belly and some soup. sarap! parang liempo sa pinas, mahal nga lang, we spent $20 each for the said meal.
When we checked in at our hotel, we were told that we were overbooked and they would transfer us at their sister hotel. Fine! So we got directions and circled the roudabout uhmm 5 times, because we couldn't locate the hotel. Kaya pala, under renovation, di obvious ang name nya ano ba. Good thing, libre na ang parking pag gabi and weekend kundi magra-rally ako! The hotel was nice and very spacious. Didn't like the bed that much though, it was too firm but nonetheless we were satisfied with what we got, a fully equipped kitchen, tv and spacious bathroom.
..next Travelogues: Washington D.C. Day 2
P.S.
You know why I'm so happy with the hotel we booked? They returned our money and we almost got the hotel free. Almost because I lost the confirmation/charge page and their tax charge was lower than what priceline charged us. We got a 3-star hotel for $8, woohoo! We joked that we'll definitely check-in late again so we'll be charge for free. harhar!
Labels: Travels, Washington
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Monday, April 09, 2007
I had an unnerving 2 weeks, my working permit is set to expire today. I had already applied for a renewal and praying to the heavens above, to please please get the renewal on time. I have already played the scenes wherein I have to break the news to our H.R. that I am unauthorized to work and maybe just hire me back until such time that I get my renewal.
And if my renewal were denied, then I'd just go back to school and take a difference course other than I.T. It gave me sleepness nights! But I was really lucky, 12 days before expiration date and at 10 PM at that, I receive an email notification from USCIS that I got my renewal approved. Woohoo! My prayers were heard afterall.
And if my renewal were denied, then I'd just go back to school and take a difference course other than I.T. It gave me sleepness nights! But I was really lucky, 12 days before expiration date and at 10 PM at that, I receive an email notification from USCIS that I got my renewal approved. Woohoo! My prayers were heard afterall.
Labels: Trials
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